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San Francisco Chronicle reporter describes White House Correspondents' Association Dinner chaos
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Alexei Koseff describes White House Correspondents' Association Dinner chaos.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - San Francisco Chronicle reporter Alexei Koseff had never been to the White House Correspondents Association dinner before.
Pop, pop, pop
Local perspective:
But he was there this year on Saturday night, fresh off his scoop about the sexual misconduct allegations against former US Rep. Eric Swalwell, which caused the congressman's resignation and dropping out of the California governor's race.
It was when Koseff was sitting down for his first course of salad when he heard a "pop, pop, pop sound." He wondered if it was gunfire, but didn't necessarily process that's what it was.
"It just seemed so out of place for the setting where we were," Koseff told KTVU. "And then I saw these men running in. They looked like Secret Service agents. Then I realized something serious was happening."
What was happening was that a suspect identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, Calif., an anti-Trump 31-year-old who calls himself the "Friendly Federal Assassin," ran past the checkpoint of the dinner with a gun, firing it, hitting one agent, who wasn't hurt because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. Allen was tackled and arrested on site.
This dinner marked the first time Trump attended as a sitting president, having declined invitations during his first term.
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The scene
Big picture view:
Before the arrest, Koseff described a scene where everyone was diving for the floor and climbing under the tables. Because the room was so big, some guests could hear the noise, but others in the front couldn't.
The annual dinner is the main source of revenue for the White House Correspondents' Association, an organization of journalists who cover the president. The group operates independently of the White House.
Koseff said there were multiple moments during the evening where officials came on the microphone and said the program would resume soon.
"And at this point, all of us were like, really?" he remembered. "Because we were hearing rumors that there was a dead body in the lobby, which did not turn out to be true."
For all the commotion and chaos, Kossef said he never felt that he was in "active danger," because the gunman didn't make it past security.
Kossef said he was struck by the lack of security and called it "haphazard". He said he only had to flash his ticket to get into the dinner, but his ID was never checked. Everyone went through a metal detector, but he later heard hotel guests were milling about in the event area.
"I think a lot of people were very afraid by not knowing what was going on," he said. "Then that quickly morphed into confusion and because you’re in a room full of reporters, everyone is on their phone, people are filming videos to send back to their editors, doing live hits, calling their friends and family to let them know they’re OK."